[nagdu] expectations of the blind & guide dog programs' admission standards

[Raven Tolliver]

I can't speak for all schools. But I think some schools have low
standards because they have low expectations. I have heard stories
about students who have graduated from programs and certainly
shouldn't have. I can't speak to them, I can only speak to my personal
experiences with GEB. And this is in no way bashing GEB, the
instructors, or the graduates. These are merely my observations and
experiences.

First, I confess I should not have received a guide dog because at the
time I applied, I had poor mobility skills. I was never comfortable
crossing traffic-lighted intersections, and I hoped that the field rep
who came to do my home interview and video would not ask me to do any
street work on busy roads. Fortunately for me, the person didn't. The
field rep recorded me walking a route on my college campus, which was
pretty much like walking through a residential neighborhood because it
was a small campus.

During guide dog training, I scared the hell out of my instructor. It
was just once, but I was ready to cross a super busy street. For a few
seconds nothing was coming, so I thought it was okay to go. I told the
Golden Guy forward. He stepped off the curb, because ... well, nothing
was coming. And my instructor nearly had a heart attack. I played it
off like I was just joking, and wanted to test the intelligent
disobedience thing. And I ended up getting an in-depth lecture about
the ins and outs of traffic training.
When I got home with my dog, I admitted to my O&M instructor that I
struggled to cross busy streets by myself, and we needed to work on
it. I mean, before the dog, it was just me. But after training, I
wasn't just handling some inanimate object while crossing the street,
I was using a living, breathing creature whose life and well-being I
was responsible for. If anything horrible happened to him because of
poor judgment on my part, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. So I'm
one of the people who faked it to make it.
It's great that I was responsible enough to admit my weakness and
improve my travel skills before even daring to put my dog's life at
risk, but at the time, I really felt I shouldn't have graduated with a
guide dog.

In my class, a few other people shouldn't have graduated and ended up
leaving with dogs, or at least shouldn't have left with their specific
dog. One guy was a previous student of Leader and had been sent home
without a dog. So GEB takes him in and gives this guy a dog. This guy
has horrible orientation skills. I mean, maybe he's one of those
people who was well-oriented outside and completely lost indoors, but
... I didn't understand. It was a 26-day program, and 3 weeks in, this
guy acted like he knew where absolutely nothing was located in the
building where we waited while other teams were out on route. He acted
like the place was rearranged everyday. And there was no excuse. There
were 2 deaf-blind students there whose orientation skills were pretty
flawless, and this guy ... I guess he didn't care. Idk. He graduated
with a dog, and the dog ended up going back to GEB and was rematched
with someone else all within a year.

This is to say that I don't think the trainers are well-versed in
appropriate or sufficient orientation/travel skills. Their job entails
training dogs and telling people how to work with them, I'm willing to
bet most guide dog schools' trainers know little about O&M training
and what level travel skills someone should have when they are working
a guide dog. They see when a person makes a mistake, but don't know
how to recognize when to crock it up to poor traveling skills.

In addition, I think certain schools want to give people or the dogs
the benefit of the doubt. They're under stress, so they did this.
They're in a new environment, so can you really expect them to do this
well? You're just here to learn to work a dog, the other stuff will
come later when you get home. No one has said these things, but by
their actions and attitudes, they may as well have.

Again, not knocking GEB, but some of the things they did during
training pretty much screamed, "We got low expectations." If they have
changed any of this, please correct me. I would be delighted to know
that this is no longer the case.
1. During the 2 Juno-walks, the instructors didn't require us to
decide when to cross the street. They said: "Tell Juno forward," or
something along those lines.
During those walks, we were not expected to judge traffic or make
calls. Those who have done Juno walks with dogs might have had a
different experience.
2. The instructors served us our meals.
This was incredibly shocking to me. I've been to a training center for
the blind twice, and I expected that at GEB, we would line up at a
counter and someone would serve food onto our plates and we would have
to find our way to a table while carrying our food. Nope. We all sat
down, the instructors actually brought us our plates, and even poured
our drinks! How old are we?
I mean, I get that it could get a bit disastrous with people not
knowing the lay out, some people having multiple disabilities, and
when you throw dogs in the mix, it could get complicated and
stressful. But that's life. If the rehab training centers do it, the
guide dog schools should, too.
3. There was one day where I was the last person eating in the dining
room, and a staff member who was there with me had to run downstairs
to do something. This person told me to stay in the dining room until
he came back. I piped up because I thought it was ridiculous that I
couldn't just leave when I felt like it. Nope.
I never really noticed or thought about it before, but whenever a
student got up from the table to leave the dining room and go
downstairs, an instructor or staff member would magically appear to
watch you go down those eleven steps because God forbid you might
fall. For people who have balance issues, I understand. But for your
regular blind Joe, I don't see the need for it.

That is just some of the things I noticed during training. It's
possible that the things I discussed simply depend on the staff
manning a certain class. It could also happen at other guide dog
schools, but I can only speak to the one I attended.
Maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills. But it is little things
like this that show what the schools think we are capable of doing
successfully. I mean, what am I supposed to think when people are
reluctant or refuse to let me get my food and successfully carry it
back to a table to find a seat? How should I feel when I'm not allowed
to descend a single flight of stairs on my own. It makes me feel like
a liability.

I'm not trying to paint a bad picture of GEB by any means, but I'm not
a loyal client who won't acknowledge the school's flaws. If I had to
get a guide dog again for the first time, I'd choose GEB. They were
able to give me what I was looking for in a guide dog school at the
time and matched me with the perfect guide dog, and I appreciate the
foundation they instilled in me for dog training and canine care.

All this to make my point that guide dog schools likely have low
expectations of their blind clients, and so they have low standards of
who they are willing to accept and graduate. They don't know what it
looks like or means to be an independent blind person, nor do they
understand the ways in which they are robbing us of our independence.
And because they don't allow us to fully demonstrate the extent of our
responsibility and independence, they exercise paternalism in varying
degrees.
How do we as graduates change this? How do we demonstrate that we are
not liabilities? How do we bring about a change in attitude so that
schools treat us as independent individuals.
--
Raven